Biden's helmet

It is a fraying, combed-back helmet that barely covers a longtime fact of Washington life: The senator from Delaware has taken steps to pre-empt baldness.

The most common hypothesis is that he received a hair transplant, where follicles from the bushier back of the head are grafted onto fading spots closer to the front of the dome.

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In 1987, a Washington Post reporter asked him to confirm the theory. "Guess," he responded. "I've got to keep some mystery in my life."

A quick Politico survey of stylists and hair transplant surgeons — some of whom have followed Biden’s career path for years, while others didn’t know about him until yesterday — found that there was little mystery.

“When he had darker hair it was pretty obvious, he had larger plugs,” said Dr. Michael Beehner, medical director of the Saratoga Hair Transplant Center in New York. “With the lightening of his hair, it looks much, much better now.”

“Years ago, it was much more detectable,” added a surgeon from the Midwest who refused to be identified. The pattern of Biden’s hairline, according to him, did not follow the normal path of baldness.

Until the late 1980s, according to Beehner, the only method of hair transplantation involved “plugs” that each contained 15 to 30 hairs. If executed well, they could be lined up to create a solid wall of hair. Today, it’s different — and much less visible. “They use little tiny grafts,” Beehner said. “And a typical session is 1,000 to 2,000 grafts.”

“A lot of people have touch-up work, and he may have had some,” he added.

The stylists Politico spoke to, while not enamored with Biden’s haircut, thought the work had turned out well.

“I think he should darken the hair on the top of his head,” e-mailed Christina, a stylist who generally works with celebrities. “One of the reasons being, with it being lighter than the rest of the hair it makes it appear to be thinner.”

“In my view, his haircut and style do not complement his squarish face shape,” added Sky Vega, a stylist in New York. “A forward comb with a serrated fringe would soften that.”

“I feel like it’s a minimal amount of work,” she noted. “I mean, it’s really common for a lot of guys." (The International Society of Hair Restoration surgery estimated that more than 100,000 operations were performed in 2006.)

“Transplant hair, if a good one, can be cut and styled almost exactly like your real hair,” said Christina. “It depends on the technique.”

Along with Biden, the ranks of the senatorial plugged-in included the late Wisconsin Democratic Sen. William Proxmire — who served from 1957 to 1989 — and South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, whose fiery orange plugs stayed in until he died in 2003 at the age of 100.

At Thurmond’s 90th birthday party, Biden found a patch of common ground. "When I came to the Senate in '72, you were 70,” he said. “And I want to tell you I resent any reference to your hair. You have been an inspiration to me in so many ways.